Preparing for grading.....

I'm grading for 1st kyu tomorrow, along with my husband, son and another guy. On Wednesday our instructor lets us work on our syllabus at the back of the class. We didn't even bother with the individual kihon stuff because there is so much partner work to get through.

 

We have to demonstrate 9 different ippon kumite techniques (to 3 different attacks), 3 escapes to grabs from behind, 2 separate bunkai applications (one for each kata we have to perform) and escapes from mount and guard positions on the ground. We've each had to work out our own techniques (with some help from Sensei), so we are all doing different things. It took over half the lesson just for us to train these partner techniques.

 

We then got the chance to do each of our katas once each and then did a bit of kumite practice with the rest of the class. I know the kihon will take about 1/2 hour for us all to compete so I'm reckoning that the whole grading experience is going to last 2 hours at least - just for us. Taking into account that some 4th and 3rd kyus are grading in the same session, then I think we will be there at least 3 hours......

 

Another marathon grading session coming up! At least the hot weather has abated at the moment. I'll let you know how it goes.....

 

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